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Thursday, 31 October 2013

We had a one off Wardrobe in the Garden exhibition last Sunday, but due to bad weather we had to move into the gallery at Lillico. Cathy, the owner has very kindly let us leave our things there for another two or three weeks, which is great, so if you're anywhere near Warragul in the next two weeks they would love to see you, there are some great things for sale, including lots of Patsy Worledge one off coats and bags as well as scarves and cuffs made by Dot .

part of my jewellery and bag display

a few of my bags.

Below is a king parrot who visited our bird feeder this morning.

Thanks for stopping by and for your lovely comments, they are much appreciated.

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Sunday the 27th of October at 2.00pm at Lillico Glass Studio, 243 Lillico Road Warragul

The exhibition will be a part of Wardrobe in the Gardens in the beautiful gardens at the gallery

Coats, jewellery, bags, felted clothing, eco dyed garments are just part of the goodies on display.

The Gallery is also conducting a High Tea

we'd love to see you there

a very big thanks to Jacky Williams for taking on the task of organising it for us

Thanks too for all of your comments and kind wishes in my last post, we are safe at present as we live in Victoria, New South Wales is our neighbouring state, there are no boundaries where fires are concerned, many of our fire fighters are in NSW helping, it's all hands on deck when disaster strikes our beloved country

Monday, 21 October 2013

I'm not sure how many of you have been watching the news and if you even see it in other parts of the world, but Australia is under fire again, literally, this time in NSW. It's still only spring and New South Wales is having it's worst bush fires in decades. High temperatures, hot northerly winds and no rain are making conditions impossible for fire fighters to get the fires under control, they predict they could last for weeks. So many homes have been lost, fortunately there's been no loss of life to date, we can only hope that continues. If you are able to help the Salvos are doing a great job http://salvos.org.au

More photos of the devastation can be seen here on the ABC's news website.

Sunday, 13 October 2013

Many years ago I used to dye wool and fabric with natural dyes, gum leaves, onion skins etc. refusing to touch commercial 'colourful' dyes, but that was many years ago. Now I'm torn between the two I love the brilliant colours that can be achieved with the commercial dyes, but also love the thrill when I open a bundle of plant dyed silk. India Flint has mastered this art to perfection over the years and has named it Eco Dyeing, I like to call mine 'Pot Luck' as it does greatly depend on the pot you use and where the water came from. I've had a really bad flu bug this past two weeks and decided to spend Saturday over the eucalyptus dye pot. I'm not sure if it killed any bugs but it certainly helped clear my head. Following are the results.

these are the bundles after steaming

I couldn't wait for more than a day to open them, these are sections of the cloths. I left one unbundled.

these are some of the commercial dyed results, I even dyed some white buttons

I'll be cutting some of these fabrics, laces and doilies up and making colour packs like the ones below to add to my Etsy, as well as using them in current projects.

Finally, this is what I'm working on at present, it's a commissioned piece that will be a concertina book. I'm depicting Monet's garden for the background. There will be many layers.

the background fabric was all shades of green, I've coloured some of the flowers and added free motion leaves and willow branches. I still have to work on the bridge.

my dyed yellow buttons have become flowers, I still have lots more stitching, beading etc to add.

Thanks again for visiting and commenting, I'll try not to take so long before I post again.

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About Me

I'm a graphic designer living with my husband in a lovely part of the world in Victoria Australia.
I love most art forms but in particular jewellery making, painting, mosaics, altered books and decorating papers to make journals. I teach altered book and decorated paper workshops.
I sell my jewellery and mosaics at a gallery in the hills. You can see more of my work if you visit my web site below